MILWAUKEE — Tyson Chandler sat at his locker, staring at the box score for a full minute, shaking his head. Raymond Felton darted out of the locker room without talking despite requests for him to stop.

A rocky season had just gotten a lot rockier. Carmelo Anthony’s alma mater Syracuse was named the No. 1 college team in the country Monday, but his NBA team, the Knicks, went out and resembled one of the league’s worst.

The Knicks lost to the league’s worst team, the lowly Bucks, 101-98, in a nail-biter before a sparse but electrified crowd at Bradley Center.

With the score knotted at 98 after an Anthony 3-pointer, Bucks point guard Brandon Knight sized up Felton and fired up a 3-pointer from the right wing to give Milwaukee the winning points with 1.4 seconds left.

It was a miserable night for Felton, with coach Mike Woodson critical of his defense on the final play. He was 1-of-7 from the field for three points, including two airballs on floaters. His seven assists didn’t make up for it.

“Raymond kind of backed off a little bit,’’ Woodson said. “I thought he could have been a little more aggressive on it. He kind of walked into it and Brandon made a hell of a shot. … I got to get Raymond going.’’

Somehow the Knicks sparked the Bucks’ competitive spirit for one evening as they played some of their most lax defense of the new year. Anthony scored 17 of his 36 points in the fourth quarter, but ultimately couldn’t rally his team from a 10-point deficit early in the period. They also lost despite J.R. Smith going for 30 points.

“I’m not taking anything away from Milwaukee, but this was a game I thought we could have won and just let it get away,’’ Woodson said.

Anthony made 3-of-4 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, scoring all 17 of his points in the final 8:44.

“It’s a tough situation to be in, myself and J.R. combining for 66 points and still coming up short,” Anthony said. “That guy hit a tough shot at the end. It came down to that shot. Regardless of what happened before, it came down to that shot. He made a big-time shot.’’

The Knicks had one last crack at saving face. Felton inbounded to Anthony, who took a dribble and fired up a 30-foot prayer that went wide, failing to hit the rim.

The Knicks now have 29 losses — one more defeat than all of last season. The Knicks plummeted to 19-29 and the Bucks moved to 9-39. The Bucks easily have the league’s worst record as they tank for the draft, after going 1-14 in January. The Knicks don’t have a first-round pick.

“They’re still a professional team,’’ Anthony said. “They have something to prove. Those guys wanted to come out and beat us. We represent New York. We play with New York on our chest. Every time we step on the court no matter where, guys want to beat us.’’

Chandler, who had predicted the Knicks moving up to the third seed days ago, was clipped with his answers after scouring the box score, which showed his 1-of-6 showing from the free-throw line.

“You can say a lot of things,’’ Chandler said. “I thought down the stretch we put ourselves in situations to win the game. We just had some tough breaks. If it went to overtime, we probably would’ve gotten the win.’’

Actually probably not, as the Knicks’ defense kept getting worse. The Bucks were 5-of-5 from 3-point land in the second quarter and finished 11-of-18 from the stripe. Knight finished with 25 points, Khris Middleton nailed 5-of-6 from 3-point land for 19 points and the Greek rookie, Giannis Antetokounmpo put on a show, too, scoring 15 points with some electric fastbreak drives.

When Amar’e Stoudemire coughed it up, Antetokounmpo got out on the break and scored on a putback dunk to put the Bucks up 10, 81-71 with 8:44 left.

“They did great job,’’ Smith said. “Our game plan was to switch. We didn’t switch. Offense wasn’t the problem. We got what we wanted. It was just defense.’’

After Smith cut it to 96-95 with a 3-pointer, Zaza Pachulia made a great pass to a backdoor-cutting Knight for the layup, making it 98-95 with 27.5 seconds to go.

The Knicks trailed the entire second half after getting off to an 11-3 hole to start. On one third-quarter fastbreak, Bucks center Larry Sanders simply outhustled Chandler and Anthony down the floor to take a feed and score a layup.

When Bucks center Larry Sanders fouled out with 2:59 left, he spent nearly half-minute gyrating to the crowd to pump them up. The small crowd went wild. It was the kind of emotion and spirit the Knicks lacked all night.

What's Your Take?

The Knicks DONT play defense, Melo, JR and Felton.....and why would any other team in the NBA want to trade with the Knicks its a easy win against them every game....But the owner and GM and coach dont see this, but every fan does.........

was this real ? Anthony ties the game with a 3 pt shot - 4.5 sec left. Bucks take the ball in under the basket, go the length of the court, make a LAYUP in 3 whole seconds. the length of the court in 3 seconds for a LAYUP. how is that possible ?

The problem with this team is the head coach's defensive tactics! Switch, switch, switch! They switch EVERY DAMN time! Teams know they won't fight through a second screen and they end up with mismatches. Their centers trying to guard a PG on the perimeter. Or the other teams center posts up the PG that switched onto him. Woodson doesn't teach them how to fight through screens! As long as he's head coach, they'll continue to make sorry teams like the Bucks look like playoff teams! He's got to go! Oh, and he can take Felton with him!

Typical Berman. Missed true story. What did our back court shoot Berman? Obsessed with calling out Bargnani, Smith and Melo, Berman fails to see that every point guard we play Felton makes look like Michael Jordan for a day. That and he does not know what a point guard is suppose to do, make players around hum better. Funny, when Knight beat him back door to tie the game he was looking for Bargnani to blame but realized he was not on the court.

@Knickstape Alan Hahn pointed that out in the post game -- that the scouting report on the Knicks is to attack the point guard position. But I would say that some of the best point guards in the game, suck on D. Chris Paul sucks on D and he's the best point guard in the game. Felton regularly scores at will on Paul (and vice versa). John Wall? Sucks on D. Kyrie Irving? Sucks on D. Steve Nash? Horrid. There's a lot of elite point guards who don't play D.

@Malaki Azul Agree. They lead the league in 3 pointers given up. The switching defense has finally gotten better recently, but last night -- Milwaukee scored at will. Nobody is afraid of the Knicks defense.

@Peggy Martel there's an article somewhat blaming Fat Felton, but it's not real harsh. no need to beat a dead horse I guess, and it's not really the players fault managem is historically so bad. and yes, once again the oppositions guards star while Knick guards are invisible - B.Knight doubled his average.

@rob pinta - I assume you didn't watch the game last night. He took the team on his back and might have won it if he didn't have to carry his coach as well. 17 points in the fourth quarter. I assume you are a 5'6" 240lb mouth that never played a game of basketball in your life, judging from your comments.

@Jackie C. What proof do you have the team is better without Melo? Without him the Knicks would have the worst record in the league. Management is to blame for a bad roster, this is not all Melo's fault. As the face of the franchise he does deserve some of the blame, but management also needs to surround him with complimentary players and a "consistent" number two scorer. You guys kill me the way you are always trying to blame him for the loses. last time I checked it was a team game. And what has he done that has been so cancerous to the team? Please provide proof, not speculation or opinion!